compression tester
angle grinder
compressor (monitor craigslist)
metric tap and die set
drill press (monitor craigslist)
Monday, July 12, 2010
Tools I need
Sorted by price/need
impact driver
wire wheels for drill
carb balancer
compression tester
angle grinder
compressor (monitor craigslist)
metric tap and die set
drill press (monitor craigslist)
compression tester
angle grinder
compressor (monitor craigslist)
metric tap and die set
drill press (monitor craigslist)
New Project!
Now that the Triumph is a working just fine, I find my self sitting in the garage sometimes thinking about what else I could do. At the point I found myself considering scrounging the cams of a Triumph Sport, I decided I should probably get a new project bike, so I don't end up driving the Subaru every day while the Triumph was in pieces in my garage.
I was able to pick up a 1989 Suzuki GSXF 600 from a co-worker for $300 dollars. It turns over, but doesn't run. It's one of the most awfully maintained pieces of machinery I have ever seen. I'll post on that later. My current plan is to make a streetfighter out of it.
Meanwhile, here's some pictures:
I was able to pick up a 1989 Suzuki GSXF 600 from a co-worker for $300 dollars. It turns over, but doesn't run. It's one of the most awfully maintained pieces of machinery I have ever seen. I'll post on that later. My current plan is to make a streetfighter out of it.
Meanwhile, here's some pictures:
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| From 1989 GSX600FK |
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| From 1989 GSX600FK |
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| From 1989 GSX600FK |
Friday, May 7, 2010
Rode the Legend to Lake Matthews
Sometimes I'm ambivalent about the prescence of humans in the Southern California Desert.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Headlight and Legal!
Took off the left turn signal to fix the headlight/turn signal bracket. The connector was a little greasy, and I needed a couple of needlenose pliers to get them apart.
For the bracket, I used standard JB Weld, with embedded pieces of solid wire perpendicular to the break, on the back of the bracket. I'll post pictures-the chrome's not going to look good anymore. Hopefully this will hold well.
Also, it's legal! Me and Jerry went down to AAA to register it and transfer title! Seriously considering AAA membership-it went quickly. Too bad I can't take my written test there.
Now I need to figure out where to put the registration when I'm riding.
For the bracket, I used standard JB Weld, with embedded pieces of solid wire perpendicular to the break, on the back of the bracket. I'll post pictures-the chrome's not going to look good anymore. Hopefully this will hold well.
Also, it's legal! Me and Jerry went down to AAA to register it and transfer title! Seriously considering AAA membership-it went quickly. Too bad I can't take my written test there.
Now I need to figure out where to put the registration when I'm riding.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
ok.
Things left to do:
Check oil again
Check coolant
Fix shifter
clean petcock filter
grease
top up break fluid
oil chain
Check oil again
Check coolant
Fix shifter
clean petcock filter
grease
top up break fluid
oil chain
Fail #1!
Got the carbs back on yesterday. Complete lack of catching-turns over ok still.
Thoughts on possible problems:
1. Flooded: Adjust the floats. Didn't do this before, probably should have.
2. Spark: Test all three plugs for spark.
3. Compression: hopefully it's not this, since I have no clue where to go forward on this one.
4. Maybe I didn't get all of the gunk out of the carburetor channels.
Doug Douglas Motorcycles rocked me!
I was running the kid somewhere, doing a final soak of components in carburetor cleaner, and proceeded to toss me float needles in the mixture. Needless to say, the rubber parts crumbled like a very crumbly thing.
Luckily, Doug Douglas had 3 in stock!!
BTW, the Harley part did not fit.
Thoughts on possible problems:
1. Flooded: Adjust the floats. Didn't do this before, probably should have.
2. Spark: Test all three plugs for spark.
3. Compression: hopefully it's not this, since I have no clue where to go forward on this one.
4. Maybe I didn't get all of the gunk out of the carburetor channels.
Doug Douglas Motorcycles rocked me!
I was running the kid somewhere, doing a final soak of components in carburetor cleaner, and proceeded to toss me float needles in the mixture. Needless to say, the rubber parts crumbled like a very crumbly thing.
Luckily, Doug Douglas had 3 in stock!!
BTW, the Harley part did not fit.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Waiting for the one day.
Hopefully the parts will come in, everything will work, and I can ride the weekend after next. Still contemplating a replacement needle, one of mine looks a little damaged. I just need to make sure that I put that one on the #1 or #3 carb-then I can just pop the top off and drop in a new one.
Meanwhile, doing research. Here's the triumphrat post by MarkBartels on replacing out the instrument lights with LEDs. He uses: "(6) 74-xHP Wedge Base LED Bulb-White 74-WHP for the idiot lights & blinker indicators. (4) WLED-x5 LED Wide Angle LED bulbs-Warm White WLED-WW5 0.95 for the clocks."
Super Bright LEDs seems to sell the right ones.
Meanwhile, doing research. Here's the triumphrat post by MarkBartels on replacing out the instrument lights with LEDs. He uses: "(6) 74-xHP Wedge Base LED Bulb-White 74-WHP for the idiot lights & blinker indicators. (4) WLED-x5 LED Wide Angle LED bulbs-Warm White WLED-WW5 0.95 for the clocks."
Super Bright LEDs seems to sell the right ones.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Carbs out
Taking the carburetor assembly out not as easy as I would have hoped. Whoever supposedly "overhauled" the carbs didn't really seem to. I'm basing this on the fact that one of the needle jet holders had an extraordinary amount of baked on black stuff. Soaking in sea foam didn't dent it, although carb cleaner seems to do better, with multiple applications, I hope to get them cleaned up good. Especially because I don't know that I'll be able to find replacements. Turns out that it doesn't show up as a part number in the Triumph part catalog or bike bandit. I've ordered a holder for a 2003 harley sportster 883 that *seems* like it might fit. Pretty much changing out all the jets, needles, etc. since it's such a pain to get the carbs off. Ordering replacement stuff from Sudco if available, bike bandit for OEM parts if not, and the aforementioned jet holder from the local Harley place.
One last complaint-apparently, it takes as long to ship a Harley part from Wisconsin, as it does a float needle from England.
One last complaint-apparently, it takes as long to ship a Harley part from Wisconsin, as it does a float needle from England.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Home!
Finally got the bike home yesterday afternoon. Used a uhaul trailer, which they said had wheel chocks on the phone, but did not. And denied they had said that it did. Screw it! After all the setbacks, I was making this happen. Strapped it down, and crossed my fingers-seems to have made it ok.
Discovered that I am, indeed getting spark-pulled the #3 plug, grounded it on the engine, turned it over and saw the spark, so yeah, I'm pretty certain. Next step was to check out the air box to make sure it was good. Only problem is, on these guys you have to pull the carbs to do so. Oh well, I had figured it was the gas drying out with the petcock on all along, so I might as well rebuild it anyway.
Here's the fun part-I called up one of our local Triumph dealers, turns out they don't make a rebuild kit. HUGE pain in the ass-now I have to look at the exploded diagram and order the parts individually. grrrrrr.
Also on the fun, discovered that the insert on the air box that holds the screw for the cover plate was cracked, so I'm going to need to epoxy that up.
Discovered that I am, indeed getting spark-pulled the #3 plug, grounded it on the engine, turned it over and saw the spark, so yeah, I'm pretty certain. Next step was to check out the air box to make sure it was good. Only problem is, on these guys you have to pull the carbs to do so. Oh well, I had figured it was the gas drying out with the petcock on all along, so I might as well rebuild it anyway.
Here's the fun part-I called up one of our local Triumph dealers, turns out they don't make a rebuild kit. HUGE pain in the ass-now I have to look at the exploded diagram and order the parts individually. grrrrrr.
Also on the fun, discovered that the insert on the air box that holds the screw for the cover plate was cracked, so I'm going to need to epoxy that up.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
and another thing..
Need to look at adjusting the clutch next week-not sure the lever's engaging enough.
Slow day
Not a lot done yesterday-it was raining pretty good in San Diego.
Wiped down the bike more-it's getting pretty clean.
Took out the spark plugs and dropped a few drops of 10w-40 synthetic into each hole. As per someone on the TriumphRat forums, the Craftsman 18mm spark plug socket works just fine, although it was a little tight on plug three, which is luckily accessible with needlenose pliers. If it had been #2 under the frame, I would have been screwed royally. Let it sit a while whilst I put the new battery in. After about 15 minutes, I turned the engine over. Took a little doing, had to ground out the plugs to get it to work. Also, this worked some more oil into the system-I was confused before, because I had only put like 2 quarts into it, when it said it wanted 4 liters. Still, it's only up to like 2 3/4 of a quart.
My next trick was to try to get it to actually catch. I was able to drain the gas out of the carburetors on the left and right, but you really can't get to the middle one without removing the carburetors. After draining them, I rigged up a little funnel and tube into the carb, and tried to start her up. Fail. Let her sit with Sea Foam in there, tried again. Fail. Basically never got her to start. Debugging for next week, I'm going to rig up a better fuel delivery system than I had-one that only requires 1 person, and delivers a constant stream of gas. Also going to check compression and spark. If all of this is good, it seems that my next step is going to be rebuilding the carbs. Joy.
I'll probably be renting a motorcycle trailer from U-Haul to bring the bike up here. Along with all my work stuff today, I need to start in on cleaning out some work space in the garage.
On the shifter shaft side of the house. I've decided to first try fixing the existing shaft per cafetbird's post here. The only problem being, Lowe's does not sell a knurled thumb nut (got to love that name,) in 10/24. Nor does the Ace Hardware(Home Depot doesn't have them at all.) So that pissed me off, since I had already bought a Craftsman drill bit and tap in 10/24 (as a side note, the Craftsman tap t-wrench is kinda crappy.) So what I did was to buy new drill bits, taps, screws and nuts in 8/32 and 10/32 to see what fit. It looks like 8/32 fit perfectly. hmm..I'm wondering if he mis-remembered the size.
Wiped down the bike more-it's getting pretty clean.
Took out the spark plugs and dropped a few drops of 10w-40 synthetic into each hole. As per someone on the TriumphRat forums, the Craftsman 18mm spark plug socket works just fine, although it was a little tight on plug three, which is luckily accessible with needlenose pliers. If it had been #2 under the frame, I would have been screwed royally. Let it sit a while whilst I put the new battery in. After about 15 minutes, I turned the engine over. Took a little doing, had to ground out the plugs to get it to work. Also, this worked some more oil into the system-I was confused before, because I had only put like 2 quarts into it, when it said it wanted 4 liters. Still, it's only up to like 2 3/4 of a quart.
My next trick was to try to get it to actually catch. I was able to drain the gas out of the carburetors on the left and right, but you really can't get to the middle one without removing the carburetors. After draining them, I rigged up a little funnel and tube into the carb, and tried to start her up. Fail. Let her sit with Sea Foam in there, tried again. Fail. Basically never got her to start. Debugging for next week, I'm going to rig up a better fuel delivery system than I had-one that only requires 1 person, and delivers a constant stream of gas. Also going to check compression and spark. If all of this is good, it seems that my next step is going to be rebuilding the carbs. Joy.
I'll probably be renting a motorcycle trailer from U-Haul to bring the bike up here. Along with all my work stuff today, I need to start in on cleaning out some work space in the garage.
On the shifter shaft side of the house. I've decided to first try fixing the existing shaft per cafetbird's post here. The only problem being, Lowe's does not sell a knurled thumb nut (got to love that name,) in 10/24. Nor does the Ace Hardware(Home Depot doesn't have them at all.) So that pissed me off, since I had already bought a Craftsman drill bit and tap in 10/24 (as a side note, the Craftsman tap t-wrench is kinda crappy.) So what I did was to buy new drill bits, taps, screws and nuts in 8/32 and 10/32 to see what fit. It looks like 8/32 fit perfectly. hmm..I'm wondering if he mis-remembered the size.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Fresh!
Here's the Legend, straight from the garage, still resplendent with cobwebs:
Lookit those accessories! Marvel at the cleanliness (aside from the dirt)!
Lookit those accessories! Marvel at the cleanliness (aside from the dirt)!
And so it begins
Wheeled the bike out of Jerry's garage. Looks pretty good, except for the broken shifter and front left turn signal. It's pretty clean-one of my to-do items was to clean up the engine, looks like I'll get to do that mostly with compressed air and a duster, rather than with rags and engine cleaner.
Filled up the flat tires (or tyres, as all of the Brit manuals say,) to about 35 psi, even though they wanted more. Interesting that these are tubeless spoked tires, I'm wondering how well they keep their seals around the spokes.
Dumped the old oil and filter. Didn't realize at the time that the threaded stem part removes from the filter cover. The filter comes with two o-rings, a big one, and a small one. The small one goes between the stem and the cover. The big one goes on the cover. The big o-ring that came with the filter (a KN-192, I believe,) did not fit the cover. Luckily, the old one is in prime condition, I'm assuming the smaller is as well, but I'll have to check both in the future.
Removed the seat and gas tank. The seat is a bitch-and-a-half to remove, since the bolts are kinda underneath it, and between the seat and the tailight. There's a company that sells bolts that stick out past the back of the seat. I'm going to get some of these: http://www.newbonneville.com/html/tool_free_seat_bolts.html
Got a new battery, unfortunately not sealed, so I had to pour in the acid, and then charge the battery. Never got to installing it, as the charge time was past the time I wanted to leave.
Emptying the gas from the tanks was a huge PITA. Next time, I'll siphon all that I can out, and then tape something on the tank to keep gas from getting on it. I did wash the tank off afterword, hopefully this will prevent too much damage to the paint.
Noticed that the coolant was empty-need to flush and replace before cranking.
One of the bolts holding on the sissy bar is stripped. Takes some skill to stip an allen bolt.
Todo Next trip:
Identify front left turn signal bracket.
Flush/replace coolant.
Dispose this and last week's chemicals.
seafoam!
replace fuel hose
try to diagnose coil (Replace with nology PFC-06TS if bad http://www.nology.com/profire.php)
check plugs/oil inside engine
get engine number and vin
Todo:
Oil chain
lube frame
replace clutch fluid
replace brake fluid
replace suspension oil
fix shifter shaft
Filled up the flat tires (or tyres, as all of the Brit manuals say,) to about 35 psi, even though they wanted more. Interesting that these are tubeless spoked tires, I'm wondering how well they keep their seals around the spokes.
Dumped the old oil and filter. Didn't realize at the time that the threaded stem part removes from the filter cover. The filter comes with two o-rings, a big one, and a small one. The small one goes between the stem and the cover. The big one goes on the cover. The big o-ring that came with the filter (a KN-192, I believe,) did not fit the cover. Luckily, the old one is in prime condition, I'm assuming the smaller is as well, but I'll have to check both in the future.
Removed the seat and gas tank. The seat is a bitch-and-a-half to remove, since the bolts are kinda underneath it, and between the seat and the tailight. There's a company that sells bolts that stick out past the back of the seat. I'm going to get some of these: http://www.newbonneville.com/html/tool_free_seat_bolts.html
Got a new battery, unfortunately not sealed, so I had to pour in the acid, and then charge the battery. Never got to installing it, as the charge time was past the time I wanted to leave.
Emptying the gas from the tanks was a huge PITA. Next time, I'll siphon all that I can out, and then tape something on the tank to keep gas from getting on it. I did wash the tank off afterword, hopefully this will prevent too much damage to the paint.
Noticed that the coolant was empty-need to flush and replace before cranking.
One of the bolts holding on the sissy bar is stripped. Takes some skill to stip an allen bolt.
Todo Next trip:
Identify front left turn signal bracket.
Flush/replace coolant.
Dispose this and last week's chemicals.
seafoam!
replace fuel hose
try to diagnose coil (Replace with nology PFC-06TS if bad http://www.nology.com/profire.php)
check plugs/oil inside engine
get engine number and vin
Todo:
Oil chain
lube frame
replace clutch fluid
replace brake fluid
replace suspension oil
fix shifter shaft
First Post!
After many false starts (ha!), I've finally got a motorcycle. It's a 1999 Legend Triumph from my father-in-law. A quick history:
First owner was a Triumph dealership out east-in or around Manassas, VA. I list the dealiership as the owner because it was a floor bike, and probably got ridden around for demos. The bright side of this is that it's pretty tricked-out with accessories. It's got a triumph windscreen, triumph saddlebags, and the peashooter exhausts, I'm not sure if they are the "offroad exhausts," or just regular Thunderbird ones tacked on.
Second owner was my brother-in-law who lightly used it before selling it to my father-in-law, making me the 4th owner, but with a pretty reliable chain of custody.
I thought it would be fun and useful to record what I'm doing on the bike, because I have an awful memory, and need to practice writing outside of documentation.
First owner was a Triumph dealership out east-in or around Manassas, VA. I list the dealiership as the owner because it was a floor bike, and probably got ridden around for demos. The bright side of this is that it's pretty tricked-out with accessories. It's got a triumph windscreen, triumph saddlebags, and the peashooter exhausts, I'm not sure if they are the "offroad exhausts," or just regular Thunderbird ones tacked on.
Second owner was my brother-in-law who lightly used it before selling it to my father-in-law, making me the 4th owner, but with a pretty reliable chain of custody.
I thought it would be fun and useful to record what I'm doing on the bike, because I have an awful memory, and need to practice writing outside of documentation.
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